1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a seal belt device for an automotive vehicle for restricting a vehicular seat occupant on a seat upon an accident and so so forth. More specifically, the invention relates to an automotive seat belt device with a seat belt retractor having an emergency locking mechanism (ELR mechanism) which is disabled locking while a seat slide arrangement of an automotive seat device is operated for adjustment of the seat position.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, the automotive seat belt device includes a belt retractor for detecting rapid deceleration of the vehicle, such as upon an accident, so as to lock the seat belt for restricting the passanger or seat occupant on the seat. The belt retractor is provided with the ELR mechanism for detecting the rapid deceleration by detecting inertia and/or extraction speed of the seat belt for causing locking. Among various constructions of the seat belt devices, there are some seat belt devices which mount the belt retractors on seat slide mechanisms, such as passive-type seat belt devices. Usually, in such case, the belt retractor is fixed on a transverse side portion of a seat frame. Such belt retractor tends to erroneously detect emergency condition during seat position adjustment, in which the seat frame is moved in longitudinal direction. Erroneous detection of the emergency condition causes locking of the belt to unnecessarily restrict the seat occupant during seat position adjustment. This is quite uncomfortable.
In order to prevent the seat belt retractor from erroneously locking the belt during seat position adjusting operation, the Japanese Patent First (unexamined) Publication (Tokkai) Showa 58-122241 proposes a seat belt device with a belt retractor which is coupled with a seat slide arrangement for preventing the retractor from causing locking while a seat slide lever is operated. In the shown construction, a lock disabling member is provided in the belt retractor for disabling operation of the ELR mechanism. The lock disabling member is associated with a seat slide lever of the seat slide arrangement via a kind of linking member. When the seat slid lever is operated, the lock disabling member is also operated via the linking member for restricting operation of the ELR mechanism of the belt retractor for allowing seat position adjustment without causing locking of the seat belt.
Such type of the belt retractor has a drawback in complicated construction. Namely, as is well known, the belt retractor generally has relatively complicated and complex construction even without the lock disabling member. On the other hand, in order to enable the belt retractor to be mounted on the seat frame, the size of the retractor assembly has to be small enough. Therefore, difficulty is encountered to introduce the lock disabling member in the belt retractor. Furthermore, making the construction of the belt retractor more complicated may cause increase of the parts and make it difficult to assembling the retractor.